H. H. Gregg

It's been nearly two years since H.H. Gregg brand was acquired by holding company Valor LLC. And while the retailer has existed as an ecommerce website in that time, September 5 marked a major milestone as the brand opened its first brick and mortar location since the acquisition.

If only it were just the tepid economy that was driving retailers to review their advertising accounts. Then, when the economy turned, so would the fortunes of JCPenney, Kmart, Staples and others.

Sadly for struggling retailers, though, something more fundamental is at play. The nature of shopping has changed, thanks primarily to the Internet and mobile phones. Today, consumers know more about brands and prices before they enter a brick-and-mortar store, that is if they enter at all.
So, while a new brand positioning can help a retailer

Electronic retailing was once a lucrative business. Companies like Best Buy and RadioShack dominated the field and were known across the country by anyone looking for a TV, videogame, or computer.

With the rise of Amazon.com and other e-commerce sites, many of these electronic retailers have become merely showrooms for online firms. This has allowed internet companies to poach sales from big box stores, and crater profits for brick-and-mortar companies that are drowning under high fixed costs.

While most investors have focused in on the giants of the space, some relative newcomers

Appliances and electronics retail chain hhgregg, Inc., reported that comparable store sales of Appliances were up 6.1% in the third quarter of its current fiscal year (compared to the third quarter of its previous fiscal year). Appliances comps were up 6.8% in the first nine months of the fiscal year. The third quarter of the fiscal year ended Dec. 21, 2012.

While appliances were up, video products dragged results down. The retailer said it would continue to shift its focus away from video products and increasingly to appliances

The holiday shopping season is about to wrap up, but retailers aren't ready to put a bow on it. Not just yet.
With two days left to grab last-minute gifts, stores are hoping to make up for what many of them say has been a moderate season at best.

To do it, they are extending hours and, in some cases, staying open around the clock. They are slashing prices today and Monday. They are giving gift cards and store cash with purchases.
"After Black Friday weekend, everybody hibernated," said Britt Beemer

Consumer electronics retailer hhgregg Appliances Inc. is making use of its store inventory to fill online orders, adding a ship-from-store option a year after introducing buy online, pick up in store.

Last fall hhgregg rolled out a redesigned web site, built a new, in-house e-commerce platform and launched "buy online, pick up in store" services during the holiday selling season, Dennis May, president and CEO, told analysts on the company's recent earnings call. Today, nearly two-thirds of all web purchases are picked up in stores, he said.

hhgregg is a regional appliance/electronics retailer that has been beaten down by over 60% in the last year. It operates all over the Eastern half of the United States. Investors are worried that the brick and mortar business model is dying, particularly in consumer electronics, and that HGG has a broken model. Its comp sales have been down for the last 3 years, Circuit City has failed recently, Best Buy is struggling and has also seen poor comps, Sears is on the ropes, and Amazon has been putting up 20%+ comps.

In a modern fairy tale, the smart little pig would have built his house out of e-commerce, since it's apparently much stronger than bricks. Brick and mortar retailers like Best Buy, Hhgregg, and Radio Shack are seeing sharp declines in profits as more customers shop online.

Last week, shares of Hhgregg plunged 30 percent when the company had to cut their full year forecast. The news also affected the price of Best Buy shares, whose share price was already down nearly a third from where they were this time last year.

Shares of Hhgregg Inc lost more than a third of their value on Wednesday and dragged down larger rival Best Buy, as a cut in the appliance and electronics chain's full-year forecast stoked fears that traditional stores were fast losing business to online competitors.

Brick-and-mortar retailers including Hhgregg and Best Buy Co Inc have been struggling to maintain market share as customers get increasingly comfortable with making even large purchases online.